Preemployment drug screening in a large metropolitan medical center: a one-month trial.

To assess the prevalence of illicit drug use among job applicants, a large metropolitan medical center conducted preemployment drug screening of all applicants during January 1988. Urine samples from 172 preinformed applicants were screened using Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique (Emit d.a.u.) followed by confirmatory gas chromatography/mass spectrophotometry. 4.1% of tests were positive for marijuana and/or cocaine and none was positive for heroin. Positive findings increased with decreasing socioeconomic status. The findings suggest that applicants for jobs in large medical centers in metropolitan areas are no different from those in other sectors of the economy with respect to illicit drug use.